576 
Semen  Cedronis. 
(  Am.  Jour.  Pharm. 
1       Nov.,  1885. 
effect  wheu  taken  by  a  bitten  person,  but  it  is  said  the  exhalation  from 
people  who  for  a  time  drink  a  liqueur  prepared  from  the  seed  or  the 
bark  acquires  such  an  odor  that  poisonous  snakes,  insects  and  spiders 
are  scared  by  it.  But  it  is  now  recognized  that  an  antidotal  action 
against  snake-bite  does  not  exist  in  the  seeds,  wdiilst  their  antifebrile 
properties  appear  also  very  problematic.  Du  Coign ard  observed  that 
the  Indians  of  Xew  Granada  used  95  grams  of  the  seed  wdth  effect 
during  the  cold  shiverings,  and  he  himself  obtained  results  with  them 
where  quinine  had  failed,  but  he  confesses  that  the  activity  of  the 
seeds  was  not  uniform.  Other  observers  could  recognize  no  action  at 
all.  Whether,  as  has  recently  been  affirmed,  the  drug  is  a  remedy 
against  insanity,  is  probably  also  open  to  doubt. 
The  plant  occurs  in  New^  Granada,  especially  along  the  Magdalena 
river.  Polakowsky  brought  the  seeds  from  Costa  Rica,  where  the 
plant,  according  to  his  statement,  grows  in  the  hot  lowlands  of  the 
coast  district  on  the  western  side  of  the  republic.  He  mentions  also 
the  statements  of  Scherzer  and  Wagner  that  it  is  frequent  in  the 
woods  on  the  eastern  side.  It  appears,  however,  to  extend  consider- 
ablv  further  north,  since  seeds  were  exhibited  in  Berlin,  in  1883,  from 
Mexico. 
The  seeds  have  long  been  known ;  according  to  Lindley  they  were 
mentioned  as  far  back  as  1699.  The  tree  was  discovered  in  1846,  by 
Purdie,  and  described  by  Plauchon.  It  attains  a  height  of  6  metres, 
and  the  stem  a  diameter  of  15  to  25  centimetres.  The  pinnate  leaves 
are  smooth,  at  least  60  centimetres  long,  consisting  of  at  least  twenty 
leaflets,  and  are  alternate  or  opposite;  the  leaflets  are  sessile,  10  to  15 
centimetres  long,  acuminate  and  penninerved.  The  common  petiole  is 
cylindrical,  and  terminated  by  an  odd  leaflet.  The  racemes  are  60  cen- 
timetres long  or  more,  densely  crowded,  strongly  branched,  covered  with 
a  short  velvety  reddish  down.  The  calyx  is  small,  cup-shaped,  with 
five  obtuse  teeth,  and  an  ochreous  down.  The  corolla  has  six  [according 
to  Planchon  five]  spreading,  pale  brown  petals,  downy  externally.  Ten 
short  stamens  stand  behind  a  similar  number  of  scales,  which  approxi- 
mate to  form  a  tube.  Carpels  five;  styles  five,  above  the  base,  and  longer 
than  the  stamens ;  one  ovule  in  each  carpel.  The  fruit  is  very  large,  ' 
one-seeded  by  reason  of  the  abortion  of  the  other  carpels,  berry-like, 
ovate,  oblique  at  the  top  ;  the  fleshy  part  of  the  fruit,  which  does  not 
appear  to  be  very  soft,  is  enclosed  in  a  horny  endocarp.  Seeds  very 
large,  suspended,  covered  with  a  membranous  integument,  with  a  very 
